All “HELMINTHES,” however, belong to the group of permanent parasites. This term is now applied to designate certain lowly worms which lead a parasitic life (intestinal worms); but they are not all so termed. For instance, the few parasitic TURBELLARIA are never classed with the helminthes, although closely related to them. The turbellarians, in fact, belong to a group of animals of which only a few members are parasitic, whereas the helminthes comprise those groups of worms of which all species (_Cestoda_, _Trematoda_, _Acanthocephala_), or at least the majority of species (_Nematoda_), are parasitic. Formerly the Linguatulidæ (_Pentastoma_) were classed with the helminthes because their existence is also endoparasitic, and because the shape of their body exhibits a great similarity to that of the true helminthes. Since the study of the development of the Linguatulidæ (P. J. van Beneden, 1848, and R. Leuckart, 1858) has demonstrated that they are really degenerate arachnoids, they have been separated from the helminthes. It is hardly necessary to emphasize the fact that the helminthes or intestinal worms do not represent a systematic group of animals, but only a biological one, and that the helminthes can only be discussed in the same sense as land and water animals are mentioned, _i.e._, without conveying the idea of a classification in such a grouping. It is true that formerly this was universally done, but very soon the error of such a classification was recognized. Still, until the middle of last century, the helminthes were regarded as a systematic group, although C. E. v. Baer (1827) and F. S. Leuckart (1827) strenuously opposed this view. Under the active leadership of J. A. E. Goeze, J. G. H. Zeder, J. G. Bremser, K. A. Rudolphi and F. Dujardin, the knowledge of the helminthes (helminthology) developed into a special study, but unfortunately it lost all connection with zoology. It required the intervention of Carl Vogt to disestablish the helminthes as one class of animals, by uniting the various groups with those of the free-living animals most closely related to them (_Platyhelminthes, Nemathelminthes_).